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Joe Brown - 1960 - 1964
1960 saw the birth of his first daughter, Helen. This year also marked a change in direction. For the past seven or eight years Joe’s aspiration in Wales had centred on Cloggy. Like Cox before him he had grown to know the cliff intimately, but had worked it out at the standards of the day. Some variety was needed. Although not matching Clogwyn D’ur Arddu in scale or ambience Tremadog nevertheless has some advantages. It is a user friendly crag, being situated immediately beside the road, offering rock with good friction, a variety of climbing, and a far drier climate (it also doesn’t take drainage so dries quickly) than is found in the mountains, although only 20 miles from Snowdon. And, above all, at this stage it still offered plenty of scope for exploration. Joe’s first visit was in March 1960 Joe, lured there by climbing partner Claude Davies. Immediately Joe established two crack climbs that were destined to become classics of the crag, Leg Slip (E1, 5a,5b) and First Slip (E1, 5c,4c). Vector (E2, — another classic that weaves an unlikely way through overhangs - was accomplished next, over two visits, the first with Trevor Jones, the second with Trevor and Claude Davies. Both fell off at the first overhang - Claude was able to regain the rock because of a runner above him. Trevor, coming last, was not so lucky since Claude had removed it, and he was left hanging in space. Much to his frustration he had to be lowered to the ground; so missing out on the first ascent of what was to become the best known route on Craig Bwlch-y-Moch. Exploration was in the air and the North Wales was scoured for new crags. One offering was Carreg Hyll-drem, a small and viciously overhanging roadside crag where Joe established classic routes of Primus (E2, 4c,5c,4c), Hardd (E2, 5c,4b) and the Girdle (HVS, 4c,4b,4b,4c); another was Castell Cidwm where he climbed Dwm (A1,HVS, A1,5a,5a,A1) Vertigo (HVS, 5a,4c) and The Curver (VS, 4c,4c), returning in 1962 with Chris Bonnington to establish Trango (E4, 6a free but originally aided) a photo of which was later used as the Joe Brown shop logo. 1961 saw a return to Tremadog with The Neb (E2, 5b,5c,5c), Nimbus (E2, 4b,5c,4b,5a), The Grasper (E2, 5c,5c) and The Fang (HVS, 5a,5c) all being climbed.
In 1961 Tom Stobart was making a film about the Valley of the Assassins in Persia (now Iran) for the B.B.C. and invited Joe to accompany him to gain access to caves high on the cliffs. Disappointingly, although the film was a success, little of interest was found in the caves.
Upon his return from Iran in September Joe commenced work as an instructor at White Hall, Derbyshire’s Outdoor Pursuits Centre at Buxton. Although not a teacher it was held that this was more than compensated for by his abilities. Although this gave Joe the opportunity to spend his working time in the outdoors it also had its drawbacks. One was that now Joe was no longer his own boss and could not accept any invitation he chose for climbing trips. Inevitably within a couple of weeks of starting at White Hall he had asked for 2 weeks leave the following spring to go on a trip to Petra in Jordan where Tom Stobart was working on a further archaeological film. But another invitation to go to Patagonia had to be turned down. Indeed, had he been able Joe could have spent most of the ensuing two years on expeditions! Nevertheless he enjoyed his time at White Hall, and for a time even lost his enthusiasm for climbing. In its place he took up canoeing, enjoying the challenge and thrill of paddling white water. By nature Joe has never been overtly competitive, and had no wish to get involved in slalom competition. However, he was once persuaded by Colin Mortlock to go to slalom with him. Paddling in Division 4 Joe immediately gained promotion to Division 3, beating Colin into the bargain! If the will had been there he would doubtless have progressed further, but Joe never bothered to paddle competitively again - perhaps to Colin’s relief. One party piece he developed was the ability to canoe upside down, always guaranteed to make an impression with his students.
1962 saw Joe invited to join an expedition to the Pamirs, partly funded by a Texan businessman to encourage détente between East and West. John Hunt had already led an expedition to the Caucasus in 1958, and a Russian group had been hosted in Britain in 1960. In the event an S.M.C. expedition led by Malcolm Slesser amalgamated with the Alpine Club one to form a British expedition. The regimented structure of Russian mountaineering, the ‘sports plan’ mentality of Russian mountaineers, and indeed the way the British party was treated like a trade delegation, was anathema to the climbers who deliberately tried to flout the system at every opportunity. The expedition was marred both by the incompatibility of the British and their Russian hosts - the former considering the latter reckless in their determination, while the latter considered the former undisciplined and indolent - and by the deaths of Robin Smith and Wilfred Noyce in a fall during descent. After this half the expedition left for home, others including Joe remained. The difference in attitude and the gulf between the groups became obvious on the ascent of Pic Communism (24,590ft.) when Anatoli Ovchinnikov, the Russian leader, announced that "In the Soviet Union all peoples go to the summit. Peoples who not reach the summit make the climb a failure…The strong will go in front, the weak behind. The strongest of the weak will go at the very back and force the weakest to keep up". At the summit a short speech was made and medals presented, and the British and Soviet flags flown from ice axes. Fortunately all the British climbers made it to the top, thus making expedition an unqualified success in Russian eyes. The return trip gave Joe a brief entree in to the world of espionage. While waiting in the airport at Moscow the group was approached by a man who claimed he was a reporter. While their soviet ‘minder’ was diverted he asked Joe to take a small but bright yellow package back to England. Fearing that this could be a trap, and not wishing the whole expedition to end up in the Lubyanka Joe declined, but found the packet thrust into the anorak he was carrying over his arm. Not wanting to expose the man, or indeed daring to say anything Joe boarded the plane with his heart in his mouth, expecting to be challenged at any moment. However, the flight went smoothly, and the plane landed safely. But no sooner were they on the tarmac than a man in a trench coat approached the group saying "I believe that one of you has something for me". The package was handed over with Joe still having no idea what it contained, who sent it, or who collected it.
The 1963 trip to the Alps, arranged with Tom Patey, accomplished a new direct variation on the Greloz-Roch route on the West face of the Aiguille du Plan, a successful ascent of the South-West Pillar of the Dru and another first ascent on the North West face of the Pic sans Nom. Their ascent went smoothly, although the weather deteriorated rapidly on the descent, to such a degree that they were forced to get out the bivi sack and sit out a storm while the hiss of small avalanches passed to either side of them. A pair of Italians attempting the Dru, with whom they had biviouaced the night before, became trapped high on the face. It was five days later before one managed to get down, the other had died in the attempt.
The following year the same pair returned and on the second attempt succeeded in establishing a new routes on the North Face of the Migot, and the remote West Face of the Petites Jorasses – for a change this turned out to be much easier than they had anticipated and they only to need to use the rope for a couple of pitches.

Just to show the old touch hadn’t deserted him he also once he returned to Britain he returned to Ramshaw Rocks to put up Ramshaw Crack (Now E4, 6a, but originally with some aid).
 
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